The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

We can never predict how God will work in a person’s life. Sometimes the student who seems farthest from faith, or the most antagonistic, or the hardest to connect with, ends up being the one God uses to transform a campus in remarkable ways.

Last year, 120,000 students and faculty were reached by InterVarsity’s ministry, which is rooted in 40,000 core students and faculty on over 600 campuses. And we saw a record total of 3,517 first-time commitments to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Those numbers make us excited because they represent people—students and faculty who are precious in God’s sight. People who were lost but are now found. People who were living in great darkness and hopelessness who are now living in the light and truth of Jesus Christ.

And really, that’s the story of God’s work in all of us. He has drawn us to himself, whether through a Damascus-road experience, a loving parent who led us in prayer when we were five, or an InterVarsity staff member who met with us week after week to answer every single question we had about the Gospel of John.

Now we have the enormous privilege of being used by God in the stories he’s writing in others’ lives. That’s what we look forward to as students return to campus and campus staff and student leaders begin the challenging, exhausting, joy-filled work of reaching out to others with the love of Christ.

We pray that God would use us in significant ways for his kingdom in this new school year. And we continue to pray for our chapters on California State University (CSU) campuses, in particular, who are finding creative ways to connect with students on campus, even as their status as a student organization is in question. We pray for influence, courage, and boldness. We pray for humility and confidence. And we pray that God, in his matchless strength, will do more than we can ever ask or imagine in this new year.

Pray with us for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on every campus, in every student, for his glory.